Politics and religion

WASHINGTON (AP) -- John Edwards said Monday he prays—and sins—every day, as he appeared in a unique forum where the three leading Democratic presidential candidates talked about the deeply personal topic of their faith.

The crowd gasped loudly when moderator Soledad O’Brien asked Edwards to name the biggest sin he ever committed, and he won their applause when he said he would have a hard time naming one thing.

“I sin every single day,” said Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee. “We are all sinners and we all fall short.”

The forum was sponsored by the liberal Sojourners/Call to Renewal, an evangelical social justice movement. Also appearing on stage at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium were Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York.

Edwards, wearing a purple tie to match Sojourners’ signature color, promoted himself as the candidate most committed to the group’s mission of fighting poverty. He said he doesn’t feel his belief in evolution is inconsistent with his belief in Christ and he doesn’t personally feel gays should be married, although as president he wouldn’t impose his belief system on the rest of the country.

“I have a deep and abiding love for my Lord, Jesus Christ,” Edwards said, but he said the United States shouldn’t be called a Christian nation.

He said he has been going to church since he was a child and was baptized as a teen. He said he strayed from his faith as an adult and it came “roaring back” when his teenage son died in 1996.

“It was the Lord that got me through that,” Edwards said, along with both of his wife’s cancer diagnoses.